Suzanne Schaffer

While visiting yard sales I love to take pictures of the strange things I find, or the obscenely overpriced. I found this pup for $10 The next week at Target I found him brand new for $15.19 :   And then last weekend at another yard sale for $1 : I can always tell who just wants to get rid of stuff, and those are my favorite sales. The sales where items are priced high, "Because I paid ----- for it" or "It's ----- on eBay" are the ones that I walk away from quickly.

These people know how to make a sign big enough for all to see. Kudos to them. I don't think Meyer Dairy charges $5 for a bottle full of milk. Why? I mean if someone's going to buy it chances are they'll use it. Who would have more fun with this than a 7th grade boy? This just made me wonder how much the not-so-good ones were.

Came across this quote while reading The Good Girl by Christy Barrett. It completely threw me off and made me pause. Perhaps when we find something that reminds us of how people acted in high school it isn't because they haven't grown up, maybe it's because high school is really the start of social dynamics. Before then we're all just pretty much friends with everyone. We pretend play with whoever is available. Once high school starts we tend to gravitate towards others like us and separate into groups. Maybe it really isn't a bad thing after all. What are your thoughts?

I dedicate this entry to my husband. He picked up the box of cereal and said, "Hey, do this one." So I am. Just for him. Cereal isn't my first choice as a breakfast food. It's pretty much empty calories. There's no protein in it, it's all carbs. Breakfast is supposed to fuel your day. That isn't going to happen with a bowl of cereal. But there are some people who love their milky bowl of crunch in the morning (or in the evening...lol) Here we have two boxes of crispy rice chocolate cereal.    The first one is a natural brand found in the organic section of my grocery store. There's nothing of any nutritional value in it, but it's still much better than the Post offering below it. Mainly because of the hydrogenated oil. Read the labels! Get to know the ingredients and what you're putting into your body. If you're feeling ill a lot, your diet is probably to blame. God gave us wonderful foods to eat and when we routinely devia...

Okay, just one thing that's making me scratch my head in wonder. How did this bottle of Lemon Italian Sparkling Mineral Water from Whole Foods Market end up at my local grocery store in the clearance section? There were about 6 bottles of it. Did they receive a shipment obviously meant to go to the better store? Is it a sign of things to come?  Oh how I'd love to have a Whole Foods Market right around the corner. A girl can dream.

Today we're not just talking cheese, we're talking shredded cheese. This is the time of year when everyone has a party or picnic to go to, and most of the time you need to bring a dish of some kind. Many of these dishes call for cheese. Sidenote: I'm so in love with cheese that I have to restrict it from my diet 99% of the time. I cannot be trusted with the creamy goodness that is cheese. Colby. Cheddar. Mozzarella. Gouda. Gorgonzola. Monterey Jack. Cream. Pepper Jack. Sigh. I love cheese, but it does not love me. It tempts me ever so. Today at lunch I splurged and order chicken parm. I only ate about half of it and that should last me several months. My body works much better when I stay away from cheese and dairy in general. Though, surprisingly, ice cream does not affect me in a bad way. Hmmmm..... Anyway, back to cheese. Many recipes call for shredded cheese and the food industry has listened and provided a myriad of choices in the shredded cheese department and the...

Did you kno w that you can turn any liquid soap into a foaming soap? To re-use your foaming soap containers, si mply fill 2/3 with your fa vorite soap (I used a natural liquid dishsoap that I wasn't happy with) and the rest of the way with water. Gently shake it to mix it up . So easy!

I've never liked stuffed peppers. One of my least favorite things to eat. Right up there with stuffed cabbage. *bad shivers* Green peppers aren't a favorite around here. We much pre fer the yellow, orange, and red vari ety. I had an epiphany one night and made stuffed red peppers. They were divine. Made them again last night and wrote it all out for you. Stuffed Red Peppers 1 onion, diced 3 -4 clove s of garlic , minced 1 medium zucchini, diced 2 cups cooked brown rice 14 oz can diced tomatoes 2 tbsp toma to paste 1 cup spinach 1 lb ground chicken 7-10 red bell peppers Preheat oven to 350 Combine all ingredients except for the rice and peppers in a large pot. I use my cast iron Dutch oven.       Stir and cook. While cooking, prepare the peppers. I use an economy bag of red peppers from my local grocery store. This ba g h olds seven peppers. The recipe easily makes ten.  Cut the tops off of the peppers and pull out the seeds and veins. ...

I eat the same thing for breakfast every single day. Most p eople think it's weird, I just think of it as fuel to get my day sta rted . I was never big on cereal, mostly because I don't like milk. Other than a little splash of it in my tea I don't drink it . I start my day with an organic brown rice cake with peanut butter and jelly on it. It works for me. The peanut butter provides prot ein and the jelly provides the yum. I prefer the Lundberg Farms brown rice cakes. Brow n rice is a good carb, white rice is a bad carb. White rice has no nutritional value and turns to sug ar in your system. Brown rice is a whole grain and is a mu ch better choice.  I get the ligh tly salted ones. I find these in the organic food section of my favorite grocery store. Now, let's look at some peanut butter and jelly. For the peanut butter I just chose Skippy because it's a brand that everyone is familiar with. I prefer the natu ral peanut butters, but if you don't like ...

From house to house I never know what I'll find. I'm going to start taking more pictures of the stra n ge. The above picture was letting everyone know that they were welcome.   The yard sale where this picture was taken was full o f over -priced items. They ha d an Atari 2600 with a bunch of games for $75. I almost laughed. But they were very proud of it, "We played that a lot, had a lot of fun with it..." Yeah.....30+ y ears ag o . The following pic tures were all snapped at the same sale. Enjoy.    

It's no secret that the gas meter is an ugly appendage in your yard. If you're in a neighborhood like mine then everyone has one, you either let it be or you try to disgui s e it somehow. Here are some I snapped on a recent walk down my street: These neighbors are just getting started on their disguise plan. Soon th ose little bushes will look like the se: Fully disgui sed. This is a nice way to disguise it. It's neat and attractive. This is my favorite. It matches their house. So clever and fun.